`Balance' dialog box.. what is it for.

[Derek Atkins]

Harry Putnam <reader at newsguy.com> writes:

> Josh Sled <jsled at asynchronous.org> writes:
>
>> The double-entry-accounting constraint that all transactions sum to zero
>> is a Good Thing.   Obviously, our UI and docs needs to polish it some
>> more...
>
> Well thanks for your patience and for teaching me something.  I never
> really considered the transaction is always equal to zero in the sense
> you show.  In fact, I'm not sure I see why that needs to be pointed
> out constantly.  At least for simple usage.  That aspect could as well
> be transparant to the user.

They are... Your problem is that you're not providing the "transfer
account" in the basic ledger.

> I guess for my use I will continue to check [x] let gnucash add a
> balancing split.  Or will all those notated `unbalanced USD' things
> cause me a problem down the line?

They will if you ever want to figure out how you spent your money.

-derek
-- 
       Derek Atkins, SB '93 MIT EE, SM '95 MIT Media Laboratory
       Member, MIT Student Information Processing Board  (SIPB)
       URL: http://web.mit.edu/warlord/    PP-ASEL-IA     N1NWH
       warlord at MIT.EDU                        PGP key available